At first, there were only sixty or seventy blacksmiths in the workshop here who could independently make ironware, but after Li Qingyuan came, everyone worked hard to collect and finally gathered enough 200 people, and then they were limited by materials.

To the south, there is an iron-producing Laiwu, but unfortunately the Qing army encircled and suppressed Fanwei, and the investigation was strict, so the only way to obtain iron was Zibo to the north, and Shandong Tianli would make a lot of trouble.

So in fact, the north is also closed, but the blockade is not as strict as the south, and it has been repaired by the Heavenly Council, so the blockade in the north is in name only.

The way of the Heavenly Council is very simple, whoever stops me, I will beat whom! After a few checkpoints were removed, these villagers here were much more honest.

In terms of the continuous supply of iron, this side can finally start work at full capacity, and Li Qingyuan has been away for more than ten days, and the blacksmith shop has increased its output to more than 120 pieces in three days.

Fan Wei is in a hurry, but he is in a hurry, the money has been paid, when to give him the goods is not what Li Qingyuan said, more than 20 days is enough to produce a thousand muskets, first allocated 300 produced ones for Fan Wei to use first, as for the stock of short guns, there is still a part, and a hundred have also been transferred.

Why did Li Qingyuan have to leave Fan Wei and annex it directly, Li Qingyuan also thought about it, but in the end he vetoed it, rotten people have the effect of rotten people, Fan Wei's troops can do a lot of things that Li Qingyuan dare not do and can't do, so letting him out can relieve his pressure.

Sanniang left, Li Qingyuan was also idle, called all the battalion commanders over, and held a meeting with everyone to discuss the next step.

It's March now, and the summer harvest is around the Dragon Boat Festival, and now it's not a long-term way to fight local tyrants alone after the army expands to a certain scale.

Therefore, Li Qingyuan decided to establish a guerrilla zone in Shandong before the autumn harvest, and the goal was that only Li Qingyuan could collect summer grain in all areas controlled by Li Qingyuan.

And moderately carry out the division of land to households, but only for the most heinous landlords and bullies, the rest of the landlords asked them to reduce rent and interest, Li Qingyuan was also afraid that too much movement would stir up the nerves of the gentry and landlords of the Qing Dynasty.

And an operation of this scale is not something that the Tianli Council can accomplish alone, so this time each battalion must cooperate with the Tianli Council to carry out this campaign.

The reason why Li Qingyuan was so anxious was also because the Qing army found that its people were annihilated by internal and external attacks this time, and they would definitely think that there were other forces in Shandong, and I am afraid that Li Qingyuan would not be able to hide for long.

Sure enough, three days later, the Qing army ordered the state capitals to strengthen the blockade of mountains and forests, and designated the Tianli Society as a cult and demanded that the state capitals exterminate it.

When the large forces of the Qing army chased Wu Sanniang's team south, Li Qingyuan saw this situation and immediately called the captains of the Tianli Societies in various places to start deploying guerrilla warfare.

Li Qingyuan's demarcation of the Shandong guerrilla zone was as far as Zibo in the north, Linyi in the south, Tai'an in the west, and the sea in the east.

And the armor protection system set up by the Qing court in the mountainous areas was destroyed by the township soldiers, and the Qing army was not allowed to set foot in the five miles outside the county seat, and the landlords and gentry who committed great crimes and were extremely interested in the Qing court were all suppressed?

Li Qingyuan wanted to sort out these places before the Qing court reacted, so that after the war began, Shandong's side would not be blinded by enemies on all sides, and if he controlled the mountainous areas, he would have the capital to persist in resisting the Qing Dynasty for a long time.

As for not moving the county seat, it is also to paralyze the Qing court, in the eyes of these officials, killing officials and rebelling is a big deal, as for Li Qingyuan's situation, it can still be characterized as resisting taxes, as long as you don't attack the county seat, don't make a title or something, the general Qing court doesn't think you are a rebellion.

In this way, the officials can still polish the vocabulary and report, and then keep their black hats, and then they will choose to spend a sum of money to transfer to other places.

How many people will shed their blood for the Qing court, and they have to fight Li Qingyuan to the death? There must be such people, but there are not many of them.

And the role of Fan Wei is also reflected, they are equivalent to rogues, wherever they go, no matter the county, state, or city, as long as there is a chance, he dares to try, so as long as the operation is good, Fan Wei has a great chance that the Qing court will mistake him for the leader of these anti-thieves in Shandong.

At that time, Li Qingyuan will be able to gain more time for development, and Fan Wei can burn, kill, loot and do all kinds of evil, Li Qingyuan can't, Fan Wei can blindly expand and recruit people indiscriminately, and Li Qingyuan can't, so this Fan Wei is very valuable.

At least Li Qingyuan can sell him weapons and make money from him, and Li Qingyuan is willing to keep him on this side.

The Qing army ordered, Li Qingyuan's troops also began to attack rapidly, with the current rate of musket production in Shandong, Li Qingyuan can form four battalions a month, which sounds like a lot, but what can 1,200 people do?

Therefore, Li Qingyuan hoped to continue to expand the firearms workshop, so this first sortie to the north of the troops became the focus.

Now that the troops have a wealth of experience in dealing with these townships, it is impossible for Li Qingyuan to help them fight all the time.

And giving others the opportunity to display their wisdom and talents may not be good for others, just like the last time he suppressed bandits, Li Qingyuan did not participate at all, but the various battalions here are not still fighting beautifully.

Don't underestimate the bandits, these bandits are familiar with the terrain and occupy dangerous points, and often thousands of Qing troops are helpless to take them, and these battalion commanders can kill each other with five or six hundred people, which is a kind of strength in itself.

While Li Qingyuan was paying attention to the progress of the war, he commanded the firearms workshop to start producing tiger squat cannons, and after the successful experience on the Taihang Mountain, the craftsmen here only needed to copy the whole thing. However, the production of various tools and molds still took nearly half a month.

Now that the first cannon has begun to be poured, with the cannon, Li Qingyuan's troops will not be at a disadvantage even if they fight hard with the Qing army.

After another three days, another 300 muskets were produced, and a new batch of barrels was also transported from Taihang, and the new blacksmiths arrived, and Li Qingyuan's blacksmith shop quickly doubled in size.

Taihang sent another 2,000 barrels, which were for their own use, and the 300 produced by the Shandong Military Region were for Fan Wei, and the operation in the north brought a large number of blacksmiths to Li Qingyuan, and Li Qingyuan's workshop exceeded 600 people in a short time.

However, it takes a while for newcomers to learn to get started, and new tools need to be made, so it will take a month and a half to increase the output of the workshop.

Just when Li Qingyuan thought that everything was on the right track, two pieces of news disrupted Li Qingyuan's plan, the first was that there were not enough carpenters, and the second was that Zibo sent 2,000 troops to enter the mountains to encircle and suppress the forces of the Tianli Society.

The first question is not that Li Qingyuan has never encountered it, this butt does not need any advanced skills, as long as you can work as a carpenter with both hands, you can do it, and you can even learn it if you don't know how to be a carpenter for ten days and a half months.